Yeah, it's that time again in America. I'm glad it's all winding down, but I have a lot of anxiety about this one. The election is close---and we need to keep Mr Obama in the hot seat for another term.
I know it's a little late for political jibber-jabber--if you know me I haven't been undecided about our President since he was fighting with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
 |
| Re-Paint it Black--My kind of Feng Shui |
If the new kid on the block wins, I can only believe that it will be a return to the same old Pre-Obama policies. The old pay to play representation. Those are days I do not care to revisit. For all the rhetoric about Obama being "different" (black) and "European" (foreign), it's interesting to see that the Romney camp's priority is dealing with budget deficits. Austerity programs are actually what they have been reality testing in Europe these days. And it looks like they are achieving the opposite of what they were intending to do. While we can agree that surpluses trump deficits, we need to get the economy go-go cranking first. And anyway, the main difference historically between the Democrats and Republicans is not about spending levels, its about where the money is spent and to who it gets to. Who's your lobbyist, by the way?
You may want to believe Romney has embraced "Compassionate Conservatism" post Republican Primary, but there is a lot of dark money out there being thrown around by some pretty dark souls. Or maybe these high paying billionaire philanthropists just like him a whole lot personally and don't have some substantive post-electoral Letters to Santa this year. If Romney was a car, he would be defined as "pre-owned". As far as stimulus money goes, you can't fix a problem by throwing money at it, as Republicans often have chanted in unison.
Apparently, for this crew, the only reasonable thing you can throw money at are elections.
And I will never forget how these guys used Fear as a manipulative tool so often in the Bush administration. And the divisiveness, which seems to have continued to intensify in the ensuing years. The political ads are getting completely out of hand; with the level of mudslinging, if some of these accusations are true, many of these local politicians would be ineligible for office as, they would currently be felons.
You can give businesses all the tax breaks they want, but if there is no demand companies are not going to suddenly begin to go crazy increasing their payrolls. And quite frankly, all the talk about helping small businesses, things make more sense if you merely substitute the word "big" for small. Yeah, Steve Jobs started a business in his garage, and I imagine Green Day might have also. But if Apple didn't become such a megalith of style and especially commerce, I don't think they would be coming up as a example in the political conversation. And big business and small business often are at odds. What's "good for business" isn't always good for small businesses.
The right keeps trying to blame the recession on government. But the crazy thing is that they are not critical of government policies for the right reasons. They blame government for too much regulation and unless you had your head stuck in a rabbit hole during those years, it was a lack of banking and financial regulations that led to the financial crisis. Yet they are seeking to roll back regulations and to enact policies that would increase the disparity in incomes between the elites and the middle class and poor. And not having sensible regulations in place makes no sense if you purport to be a friend to small businesses, because I don't see how you can compete when the playing fields are becoming so vastly unequal in a deregulated world. That world seems to lead to less competition and more monopoly.
Job creators. I can't argue with that concept--technically businesses do create jobs, so the statement is true. But that is not what the primary goal of a business is; their rationale for existence is to make profits, and not necessarily to create more jobs and not necessarily high paying jobs. It's just a silly ad campaign--if enough apparatchiks shout slogans into a TV camera you attain a level of market penetration through saturation. I don't like hearing it from either side of the political spectrum, like hearing people read robo-form slogans, but the right wing pundits are egregious in their endless repetitiveness. No doubt they are well compensated for their loyalties. I give them credit for being able to stare into a camera and say some of the statements they make with a straight face. It takes a special person indeed.
The bottom line is, I don't have a clue what a Romney Presidency would be like. He speaks with a lot of vagueness and contradiction. I suppose if you believe him enough to buy a car from him, he has provided a blank canvas that we can tag our dreams upon, whether it be economic recovery, or making sure only the deserving folks get stuff and not those unfortunate types the right wingers have little sympathy for, or simply going back to the old unilateralist foreign policy where we impose our own reality in our wake. Who knows for sure? Maybe just fixing the entitlement system by undermining it so that a few people can scrape off a little taste of your retirement and health care.
Of course the canard is that criticizing Romney is attacking success. I don't care about the money---it's what might happen when he is the leader of the free world. Franklin Roosevelt was probably our greatest modern president, and he came from a wealthy background. But he was a very different man than the Republican candidate who hopes to be our next president. For all the attempts to demonize him by his enemies, (those of his day and those who are attempting to rewrite American history for their own self-interested reasons), I know what Roosevelt accomplished, and I know from first hand experience the incredible reverence that the average people who lived through the Depression Era and WWII felt about this man. An extraordinary man who led this country through desperate times. Who helped the downtrodden when America was as low as it had ever been. And what we understand as the American dream has a lot to with policies enacted on his watch and which expanded over the years by Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and even Richard Nixon.
Our current President has had his share of successes in the last four years, but admittedly we are still digging our way out of a recession, one that is global in scope. President Obama inherited a host of these problems, as most fair-minded people would acknowledge. The Republicans have done nothing but stand in the way of passing legislation to help us out of this crisis, essentially taking compromise off the table. And they hope to benefit in this election by refusing to do anything in the midst of the tremendous financial hardship many Americans have had to struggle with. Maybe to them the word consensus is merely a high falootin' liberal university synonym for Socialism.
So I heartily endorse President Obama. He has earned another four years in my estimation. Sure, I wish more things could have been done on his watch, but I think the next four years will be a boon to America, that is, if a plurality of voters happens to agree with me. Believe me, there is no disappointment, and I feel nothing but pride. And our President has once again stepped up and demonstrated his leadership during this terrible Hurricane. There is a lot of work to do, but we need a President who will roll of his sleeves and tackle these problems with directness and purpose, intelligence and competence. And fight for everyone. And make the world a better safer place. To me the choice is clear in 2012. I think we are beginning to turn the corner and we need President Obama's leadership to get us to where we need to be as Country. After four more years of dedicated stewardship I truly believe he will be remembered historically as one of our greatest presidents.
But whatever your political leanings are, get out and vote. Your vote does mean something and its part of being a good citizen!
I leave you with a little bit of great wisdom to ponder from one of my favorite musicians/activists.
